


The way it was meant to be

by WanderingWanda



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:32:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5418917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderingWanda/pseuds/WanderingWanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After discovering Chat Noir's identity, Marinette doesn't know what to do with this information. She has always loved Adrien, but she has never thought that she might not know him so well after all</p><p>Prompt: ”You. It will always be you. Don’t you get that? If I had the choice between you and a million things I’ve always wanted, I would choose you every single time”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The way it was meant to be

**Author's Note:**

> Between two exams, guess who tries to clear her head by writing about two dorks.  
> The title comes from "Between the raindrops" by Lifehouse.  
> French being my first language, there are probably some mistakes here and there, I apologize!  
> Bonne lecture !

Marinette’s head was buzzing with a million thoughts, and a thousand butterflies were wandering around her body. Her room was unusually silent. She wished her mind was, too. But the same images came to taunt her, again and again.

Tikki was trying to comfort her, but today, there was nothing she could do to appease Marinette’s heart, for the girl wasn’t sure why she was so upset.

_So Adrien is Chat Noir. No big deal, right?_

Her fingers tightened her pillow. Yes, it was a big deal. But it wasn’t Adrien’s fault.

For months and months, Marinette had tried to confess her love to the boy who made her heart beat faster. He was so sweet, so nice, so handsome! The real life Prince Charming.

For months and months, she had rejected said boy’s advances when he was cocky, funny and outgoing. She did like him. He was her partner, her best friend. If she fell, he would be there to catch her. Together, fighting for their city, they were unstoppable, a force to be reckoned with. But her eyes never lingered on him, her heart never skipped a beat by merely looking at him, her stomach didn’t start doing back flips when he acknowledged her existence. What they had was more comfortable, based on trust and companionship.

Boiling, humiliating tears started running down her face. She couldn’t be that shallow. Marinette had been so sure of her love for Adrien. Never had she thought that perhaps she did not know him so well.

Her kwami patted her back as Marinette fell on a dreamless sleep, her sorrows making a truce with her heart as darkness filled the room.

 

Seeing Adrien had always been an adventure. Usually, her neurons would start revolting, her vocal cords would produce a cacophony, and she would lose a total control of her actions, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth after their disastrous interactions. But today, when he entered the classroom with the same presence as usual, she stayed quiet. As he walked toward his desk, Adrien saw Marinette’s eyes on him and gave her a slight smile, one of those that could make icebergs melt faster than the greenhouse effect. Uncertain of what to do, Marinette waved at him weakly.

Next to her, Alya stopped typing on her phone and raised an eyebrow.

“Why aren’t you freaking out?” she tried to keep her voice low, but she couldn’t hide a hint of surprise.

Marinette shrugged. The lesson started, but Alya didn’t drop the subject: while their teacher was talking about Charles Baudelaire’s life (or more precisely, she was reading his biography with a monotone tone), Alya tore a page from her notebook. For ten minutes, they communicated like that: if at first Alya just wanted an update on Marinette’s inexistent love life, she was now worried about her cryptic answers and tried to get information out of her. What could Marinette answer? “I saw my partner transform back into the guy I have a huge crush on, and I’m confused because I never considered him as a domestic partner, and I had no idea of the existence of this side of his personality?”

Alya tapped the paper with her pencil to catch her friend’s attention.

_So, did you fall out of love with him?_

All eyes were on Marinette as she had let a strangled cry escape her lips. Alya blinked, astonished, and even Adrien had a confused look on his face. In moments like that, Marinette wished she had the power to become invisible. She stuttered an apology to her teacher.

“Since you seem so passionate about this poem, why don’t you read it aloud before analyzing it?”

Shamefully, Marinette asked Nino what poem she was supposed to read aloud. The response was the proof that she wasn’t as lucky as her counterpart. From all _The Flowers of Evil_ , her teacher had chosen to study “The Cat”. _That freaking cat_. Marinette’s voice was shaking as she recited the verses:

_“My beautiful cat, come onto my heart full of love;_

_Hold back the claws of your paw,_  
_And let me plunge into your adorable eyes_  
 _Mixed with metal and agate._  
 _When my fingers lazily fondle_  
 _Your head and your elastic back,_  
 _And my hand gets drunk with the pleasure_  
 _Of feeling your electric body,_  
 _I see in spirit my personal lady. Her glance,–”_

The whole classroom burst out laughing as Marinette’s voice became more and more high pitched, until she couldn’t speak anymore. In front of her, Adrien chuckled lightly, but Marinette knew it wasn’t because of her atrocious diction. _That freaking cat._

 

 

There had been no Akuma attack for several days after that, which postponed Ladybug’s confrontation with Chat Noir. Well, she did not know if she wanted to tell him the truth. It would be easier to pretend that she had never seen who was behind the mask, maybe they could keep their relationship intact.

For days, Marinette kept a closer eye on Adrien’s action, which honestly she didn’t think was even possible, as she had already memorized his planning months ago. But this time, she paid attention to little details, like his walk almost feline, the way his lips curved every time someone made a stupid joke and he held back his laughter, the sadness that clouded his bright eyes when he went back home…

She was finally seeing all of this, because she had acknowledged the Chat Noir part of him. The part that wasn’t perfect, that had a bad sense of humor, that would shield her with his body from danger. When the city was in peril again and she swas Chat Noir, she didn’t tell him about this whole identity situation. Rather, she was startled by how easy it was to interact with him, as if nothing had happened. They bantered, fought side by side, saved the day, exchanged witty one liners. It was like coming home after a long, tiring day. Overwhelmed with warm feelings, Marinette couldn’t help but embrace him after their traditional fist bump.

“My lady?”

She closed her eyes, her head on his shoulder. His hot breath caressed her hair, his hands on her back. She liked being there. Her suit was almost indestructible, but she had never felt safer and calmer than between those arms. She stopped paying attention to the noises of the city, and focused on him. Surprisingly, he smelled like lilacs. Marinette decided that this floral scent suited him. He was the first to pull away, reluctantly, a melancholic expression on his face. Even though his sclerotic was green, she could now recognize those eyes looking at her fondly anywhere.

“My Lady, your time is almost up. You have to go.”

Without a word, she went away and retransformed into Marinette as soon as she turned at the corner.

The first thing she did the moment she came back home was sending Adrien a text.

_Hello! Did you hear about the new superhero movie? It seems pretty neat. Wanna go the movies with me tomorrow to watch it? :)_

It took him ten minutes to answer positively.

 

 

They started to hang out quite often. Marinette didn’t stutter around him anymore and, if Adrien was surprised about it, he made no comments. She could see that he was still guarded around her, like he was around anyone else. She wouldn’t have noticed it if she had never seen Chat Noir act silly and be so open with his feelings. But he seemed to genuinely want to be her friend: he texted her first sometimes, invited her to one of his father’s fashion show. She considered his trust won when he sent her a stupid meme, proof that he decided to not hide his dorky side anymore.

She felt so stupid, thinking back about her reaction when she had learned Chat Noir’s identity. She might not have known everything about Adrien Agreste, but it didn’t mean that her feelings for him weren’t real or valid. The kindness he showed to everyone, even people who weren’t worthy of it, his knowledge in various subjects, his shyness that he tried to mask because of his role of young model, those were all real aspects of Adrien, and Marinette loved them all. She also loved his goofy sense of humor, his ridicule attempts to woo her while respecting her boundaries and never crossing the line, his bravery and determination when faced with danger, his selflessness that almost got him killed several time. She loved it wholeheartedly. She loved Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir, for they were complementary.

 

 

They both had their lower body covered in mud after a particularly nasty fight with a kid during a rainy day. The sun was hidden between now harmless grey clouds and the situation was back to normal. Ladybug’s earrings beeped and Chat Noir’s ring followed. Nonetheless, Marinette stopped him when he said goodbye.

“Hey, what’s up Kitty?” asked Marinette with a playful tone. “Wanna run away from me already?”

Chat Noir hummed with pleasure, like every time Ladybug flirted with him.

“Pardon me, my Lady! I thought you wanted some privacy.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow, but Chat Noir couldn’t see it behind her red mask.“Really? Or is that because of the mud? It’s not glamorous, I grant you…”

“Everything suits you”, he interrupted her, taking her hands in his, his expression suddenly serious. Compared to him, she seemed so tiny. If she weren’t in costume, one would maybe even say “breakable”. But Marinette knew that she wasn’t made of glass, her skin was harder than steel, and they were equals. Chat Noir knew it, too. That was one of the reasons why he admired her.

“Do you flirt like that with every girl you meet?” she wondered, out of the blue, tilting slightly her head. Another beep.

“Only with the one I love,” he admitted with an astounding laid-back attitude, as if he had admitted liking something silly, expected of him, like puns or chocolate. It seemed so easy for him. His soft gaze was on her and Marinette felt like he could see every thought, every secret of hers. But his expression didn’t change.

“How can you know? You don’t know who I am under this mask.” She didn’t intend to sound so gloomy, but the thought that he might not like to see the real Ladybug was unbearable. Adrien and Marinette were friends. What if he didn’t want more? What if he was disenchanted? Another beep.

A ray of sunlight made his way through the clouds for them. Under the light, Chat Noir’s hair seemed to be made of thousands of gold flakes. However, the smile he gave her was warmer than any star and had the power to drive out her fears.

“Because I know you,” he said simply, leaning towards her. “You’re brave, kind, compassionate. That’s you. You might not act the exact same way without your mask, but you have the possibility to be like this. You _already are_. You inspire me to do better. I would still love you if you were old and wrinkled. I would choose you over everyone else.”

Beep.

Marinette was the one to close the space between them. Their lips met, first hesitantly, then with a fire that had grown in their belly, consuming them without them realizing. It felt so right, like everything they done had been in the sole purpose of leading to this very moment. Her hands on his shoulders, his on her hips, they were closer than ever, not only physically: their hearts were beating in synchronization, their lives intertwined together.

The last beep. Marinette only noticed it because she now could feel the leather covering Chat Noir’s shoulders under her hands. They had taken brief pauses to breathe, pressing their foreheads together, but he didn’t open his eyes, not even when he could have finally found the identity of the girl he loved.

It was his turned to transform back. This time, she was the one to pull him away, gently. Adrien stayed a few seconds with his eyes closed. His cheeks were red, his lips a bit swollen. His eyelashes fluttered. Marinette’s heart pounded harder.

His expression was adorable: there was no trace of disappointment, only wonder and love. He eyed her intently, as if he was trying to learn by heart every freckles, every detail of the face he could now see as much as he wanted.

“I’m not even surprised,” Adrien confessed his hands still firmly on her hips.“At first, I was too blind to see it clearly… But then, I got to know you, and see everything that made you Ladybug…”

He laughed, and Marinette imitated him, so damned happy. He kissed her again, and she knew that he was serious, that he would love her and chose her over everyone else.


End file.
